Bubur sagu mutiara with fresh coconut sauce

Rachel, my daughter, is turning 8 this year. She told me that she wanted to try to do fasting this ramadhan. Ah, how happy and relieve I am. She will do this fasting with her own niat, without any push from me or anyone else. May Allah will always bless and help her. Aamien...
To support her, I let her choose any food that she want for the iftar (meal to break the fasting). And for this very first iftar she like to have bubur sagu mutiara, her favourite snack ever...^^
I have made  this bubur before. But for today I served it with fresh, uncooked, coconut sauce.

Ingredients:
For bubur:
125 gr sagoo pearl
50 gr sugar
2 pandan leaves
250 ml water


For sauce:
freshly grated coconut from 1/4 coconut
250 ml warm drinking/boiled water
pinch of salt

Methods:
For bubur: 
Soak sagoo pearl in water for at least 2 hours. Drain. 
Place all ingredients for bubur in a saucepan. Cook while stirring constantly until it thickens  and the sagoo pearl becomes translucent. Remove and let it cool.


For sauce:
Make fresh coconut sauce just before the serving time by mixing and squeezing freshly grated coconut with warm drinking water. Sprinkle the salt and mix well.


Put the bubur in a bowl. Pour in the sauce. Eat immediately while the sauce is still fresh.

Es Siwalan Selasih

Ramadhan, the holy month, is just around the corner. During ramadhan we usualy serve something sweet and refreshing for the iftar (meal to break the fasting at maghrib time). Just like this easy one...

Ingredients:

1 tbs selasih (basil seed)

enough water to soak the seed

100 gr sugar (may be adjusted to your liking)

2 pandan leaves

1000 ml water

Siwalan

ice cubes

Methods:

Soak selasih in the water. Set aside.

Put sugar, pandan leaves, and water in a saucepan. Boil until the sugar dissolve.
Remove, set aside and let it cool.

Cut siwalan into small cubes. Set aside.

Servings: 

Put a small amount of siwalan, selasih, and ice cubes in a glass.
Pour in the sugary water. 

Enjoy!

'Marhaban ya Ramadhan'
 happy fasting to all moslem around the world

Chickpea patties

I found an old photo in my folder. Here it is, the chickpea patties photo. I remember making this when I was still living in Perth last year. Chickpea is totally a new thing for me. I never see it, never know about it, never taste it in Indonesia. On the contrary, I saw it easily in every supermarket and asian store in Perth.

Chickpea or garbanzo bean is widely used in Indian cuisine. As I read in coles baby magazine, it is a good source of protein, zinc, folate and fiber. Yes, it is a good food. That's why that magazine suggested it as a super food for toddler. 

That day I tried to make it into a patties. Others usually eat it with yoghurt dipping sauce but my children prefer tomato sauce. 

Ingredients:

1 cup dry chickpeas, soaked overnight and boiled

1 cup frozen corn kernel

1 cup frozen peas

Spring onions, finely chopped

1 egg, lightly beaten

2 garlic, finely chopped

1 onion, finely chopped

Salt & pepper to taste

Methods:

Heat about 1 tbs oil, saute the garlic and onions until fragrant and tender. Remove and let it cool slightly.

Steam the corn and peas until tender.

In a food processor, pulse together cooked chickeas, peas and half the corn. 

Add garlic, onion, and egg. Pulse again until well mixed.

Transfer to a bowl. Add the spring onion and the rest of the corn. 

Season with salt and pepper. Mix well. 

Shape the mixture into a small ball and press it lightly. 

Heat about 2 tbs oil in a non stick frying pan. Cook the chickpea patties until golden brown.

Es campur siwalan

After I got the kitchenware I need, I went downstairs and turned left to the fresh fruits area of pasar johar. The first fruit catching my eyes was siwalan or buah lontar. It is a local name for a type of palm tree grown in East Java and Nusa Tenggara. For more information about siwalan, please see wikipedia.

Without thinking twice I bought it. The young siwalan is sold in its skin. It looks like mini young coconut, with thin flesh and water inside. While the 'older' one is sold already peeled. It will look and taste like kolang kaling.  

Drawn in my mind a glass of cold es campur with this siwalan. Es campur is a favourite drink in Indonesia. There is no exact recipe for this drink. The choice of the ingredients is subject to personal preferences. That's why if you type the word es campur in google, you will find many different recipes. Such an interesting thing, right? You can taste different es campur in every places. As long as it is cold and sweet, it is a favourite...^^

Ingredients:

Siwalan

jackfruits

avocado

selasih (basil seeds), soaked in cold water

water

ice cubes

cocopandan syrup

sweet condensed milk

Methods:

Cut siwalan, jack fruits, avocado into small cubes.

You can serve it in a glass individually, pour in some cocopandan syrup. 

Add a small portion of siwalan, jack fruit, avocado and selasih. 

Pour in enough water.

Add ice cubes or ice shaved.

Drizzle with sweet condensed milk.

Or, serve it in a big bowl, just throw in everything,

Mix well. 

Enjoy!

Property hunting: Pasar Johar Semarang

Wanna know where I buy most of the things  I need for my cooking and food photography? Here it is: 

Pasar Johar Semarang

Pasar Johar is a very old traditional market in Semarang. It was designed by a dutch architect Thomas Karsten more than a century ago. We can say that it is a heritage landmark of Semarang.

It is a big market. We can find almost everything we need here. You name it: fresh fruits, vegetables, snacks, clothes, shoes, bags, jewellery, glasses, books and stationeries, toys, even wedding souvenirs. And also things the reason why I came here some days ago, the most interesting thing to me recently: kitchenware... just like the pictures below:

If you are in semarang and have the same passion with me about kitchenware, please come to this market. It is like a heaven...^^ That day I came around 10 o'clock in the morning. I parked my car in ex matahari mall johar car park right in front of pasar johar. I crossed the street, came inside the market, passed those sellers I mentioned above, and went upstairs. There, in the second storey of pasar johar, we could find a lot of stalls selling almost all of your kitchen needs: pots, pans, dishes, cutlery, knives, moulds or pans for any traditional kue, baking pans and sheets, cookie cutters, even oven tangkring and electrical appliances.

So, what did I buy that day? 

Many things for sure...^^  Here are some of them:

a 20 cm martabak manis pan Rp. 80.000

a 20 cm round mini kue lumpur pan Rp. 60.000

an egg roll pan Rp. 22.000

cendol strainer Rp. 7000

small chiffon cake pan (...hey mba wulan sucipto, I can bake a chiffon now...^^ )

some moulds for bolu kukus

some cutlery

knives

Gosh, I almost couldn't stop picking things....
Enjoy shopping!